this is a great book of anthologie I enjoyed this book a lot in my Eng class. It has short stories up to three pages and all easy to read.

This is the Revised Brief Thirteenth edition, not the full edition. The paperback version comes with a plastic ring binder that is not suitable for heavy use. In short, this is not the version that a professional editor would want, although it might be fine for students.

I found this book to be a wonderful reference when writing anything from a short paper to a forty page research paper. Neither would have been possible without this text. A great buy!

The only reference you will need for everyday professional and proper usage of the English language. Very well organized and extremely easy to use. I highly recommend this book.

The information in this book is out of date. Techniques discussed are no longer in use as they've been replaced with safer practices.

Better approaches to buddy procedures, use of trimix and heliox beginning at depths of 100' and other techniques are NOT mentioned, although they should be. Equipment configurations are not fully discussed with modern emphasis on more streamlined, cleaner configurations.

Although he has some points, I disagree with the previous reviewer's harsh one-star assessment of this text. The second edition of this text dates to 1995, and as such can't be completely dismissed (other than some details which I will cover below).

I have been diving for 17 years, and even my technical dive training (TDI Extended Range) wasn't as informative to me (the theory part, at least) as this book. Just the historical references, including detailed accounts of fatal deep diving accidents, could make a book on their own, and really instill in the reader the value of training & advances in technical diving equipment systems, and provide a deep appreciation for the very expensive lessons that have been learned over the past half-century of experience.

I found this book to be more detailed in many aspects than many Technical Diving training manuals, and much more interesting to read. Certainly, this book is not a replacement for officially sanctioned manuals, though when I (soon) become a Technical instructor I plan to make my students absorb this text as required "additional reading".

Nevertheless, due to a lack of further updates beyond the first revised edition of 1995, readers should be aware that this book is slightly dated or completely outdated in the following aspects:

- New approaches to using helium mixes at much shallower depths than before, and more attention to breathing mixtures such as hyperoxic and normoxic trimix

- New developments in dive computers, particularly multigas, gas-switching computers such as the Suunto Vytec, the VR3, and Nitek He, the latter two supporting helium mixtures.

- Pre-dive planning of dive Multi-level, multi-gas profiles using PC-based software

- Various general diving and decompression procedures have become more standardized and stricter since this book's publication, particularly issues like gas-supply redundancy.

Despite these and some other less significant issues, this book remains a very important text which I think all technical divers should read, at least as a historical reference. Of course, it would serve both TDI and the diving community greatly if Bret Gilliam & co. would produce a new revision to this book, Which is why I am giving this book "only" four stars.

Reaslistic, practical, and easy to understand. Hazards and rewards of deep diving are both well defined. Safety well covered and emphasized. Good resource for either tekkies or those who will dive within recreational limits.

I bought this book hoping it would be more of a textual history of the banjo in America -- its development, construction, artistry, and unique place in American history. This book is NOT a history of the banjo per se; it's the companion book to a museum exhibit that ran at MIT a number of years ago. As such, it does a competent job giving a very general overview of the history of the banjo -- without much detail -- with numbing descriptions of the banjo manufacturers featured in the exhibit. I'm sure it would've done the trick nicely for the exhibit, but there's not much meat for the bone if you're looking for a more comprehensive book. Nice pictures, though.

Among the very few available resources on early banjos I rank this book very highly.

Essentially the catalog of the 1984 banjo exhibition at the MIT Museum, it presents Webb's informative and highly readable brief history of the banjo, and more. I love looking at the excellent photographs of early players, ephemera and banjos from the exhibition, but my favorite part of the book by far is Jim Bollman's information packed section entitled "The Banjomakers of Boston".

This book has proven a reliable and surprisingly complete compilation of hard to find information. I highly recommend it to banjo collectors, historians, players of vintage banjos and anybody interested in the story of "America's instrument" and how it came to be.

Vroman's photographs are often without equal in their ability to capture timelessness and "being there". Many fascinating faces, personalities almost visible, of Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, Acoma, Navajo peoples, all taken in their pueblos or hogans.

Each photo has a detailed explanation of what is shown, including (often) the story behind it. This is probably the best collection of such photos between covers available on the people of this area, and most were taken between 1895 and 1904.

This is a great text book. It has helped me GREATLY and teaches you step-by-step how to apply everything.

This is a collection of short stories by a master writer, sadly little known in the English-speaking world. "The Mandarin" is the first one and the best. An obscure Portuguese bureaucrat is visited by a demon, who tells him that, if he shakes a little bell the demon carries, in that moment a Chinese Mandarin will die, leaving him all his fortune. The man does it, and immediately the fortune of the Mandarin appears before him. But he won't be happy: the man begins to be haunted by remorse and regret, and so he decides to go to China to look for the Mandarin's family, now disposseses, and give them back their father's fortune. What follows is an extraordinary and unbelievable tale of soul-searching, of the punishment against ambition and irresponsibility, always with a dark-humored touch.

"The catastrophe" is a story against civic apathy and in favor of patriotism. "Memories of the gallows" is the least accomplished of the volume, slow and sentimental. "The treasure" is an excellent tale about unlimited ambition. "The dead" is narrated in a Medieval-like style. It's the fantastic story of a young man who gets involved in a turmoil of passion and jealousy, from which he's rescued by a dead, hung man. It's terrorific and very well written; the images impossible to forget.

This book was my introduction to one really great writer, whose famous novels I look forward to read. His main characteristics are: a fluent domination of very different styles and environments, as well as a fine use of irony and sarcasm.

If you like repetition...read this book. If you like repetition...read this book. If you like repetition...read this book. Did you get the point? IF Steel is one of the best, THIS is one of her worst! Starting out, I truly felt she was identifying with a struggle many women experience as children grow up and memories of early career goals start to resurface. After a couple chapters we had rehashed the issue so many times, we became bored with our own memories! The book could have been written in three chapters. The only thing that keeps you reading is the fact that you want it to be over! (I literally took almost two months to read the book because there was no point to hurry through. The ending is contrived, the characters are either too 'good' or too 'bad'. In order to finish I had to put space between redings so I wasn't bored beyond belief!) Can we please bring LaVyrle Spencer out of retirement? Note to Amazon...don't invest in many copies of this one. There will be too many copies people will want to unload so they don't have to dust another tome!

I haven't read Danielle Steel in years, and though she's advanced beyond 20-something lovers facing Perils of Pauline strife, Bittersweet definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth. Anyone who reads or watches popular media will be familiar w/her recent romance/marriage/pending divorce from a wealthy yachtsman and will have People Magazine and Entertainment Tonight snippets in their head as they read this book. As a result, this book comes off as self-indulgent and made me wonder if her next book will feature a romance between a thin, beautiful, and wealthy woman and a tanned former-movie-star turned bon vivant (Steel is now dating George Hamilton). My advice? Steer clear of this one.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books All About Romance ...

...I can't help but think this book isn't typical of her fare; how else could she have become so popular? I was astounded that India's husband, Doug, is painted with such a wicked brush. There is no way he could have been so insensitive all those years and she's only just starting to realize it? For a charcter who's supposed to have such insight with her camera, she's certainly blind without the lens in front of her face. I found myself getting annoyed the poor guy got this type of treatment from his creator and waited for the moment when the guy would display any sort of humanity.

Having said that, I'll confess I did appreciate Steel's imagery. The sailboat is a bit over the top...but hey, it's a fantasy, right?

In conclusion, I guess you could say one thing about this book: black and white (characters) and read all over (by her legions of fans)...

Having the large Nelson is much better. Too large for pocket

Leaders of Our Time is a biography-style book which depicts the lives and careers of thirteen of the world's most famous leaders around the year 1965. The "mini" biographies consist of basically a background of the persons life and their, "rise to greatness." To me this book was a bit too out of date to keep me overly interested. Let's just say this book was not hard to put down. There were some interesting points though. Seeing which leaders are still talked about in our history books today, is an easy way to determine the actually influence of the leaders in the 21st century. In closing, this book would be a great source for research or a history buff, but next time you want to curl up with a nice book try one that will not posses you to turn on the ol'tele.